How To Do The Question Mark Kick For Karate & Taekwondo

The question mark kick is an underutilized counter in both full-contact and point sparring competitions. The question mark kick gets its name from the shape it makes when it’s thrown, although it is strangely enough known as the “Brazil kick” in some circles. Whilst it’s rare to see the kick thrown on its own. It does provide a great counter when the opponent is blocking too many of your low and middle kicks. In general, the question mark kick is thrown to the head, although it can also be used on the body.

The ideal time to throw a question mark kick is to deceive your opponent into thinking you are throwing a kick to the body. As the opponent drops their hands, you whip your leg upwards and kick them in the head instead. The question mark kick isn’t the most powerful kick in taekwondo or karate but is certainly one of the most deceptive. For this reason alone it is a good idea to incorporate them into your range of kicks. If your opponent is kept guessing what you’re going to do next, this is an ideal scenario.

Due to its unpredictable setup, the question mark kick is seen in high-level MMA. It has been used by fighters such as Jon Jones, Holly Holm, and Luke Rockhold.

How To Set Up A Question Mark Kick

The question mark kick is set up by pretending that you’re throwing a roundhouse kick to the body, low kick, or front kick. By mixing in a few of these kicks, the opponent will begin to block the shots to their ribs with their guard. Ideally, your opponent may even try to catch some of these kicks, lowering their guard completely.

When the guard is dropped, this is the ideal time for a question mark kick, since you have 100% access to the head. If the opponent is not defending their head at all due to being preoccupied with body shots, they are likely to be knocked out. The question mark kick isn’t the hardest hitting kick in karate, however when left unchecked it will cause serious damage.

The Mechanics Of The Question Mark Kick

First of all, you must keep your hips very straight and parallel to your opponent. This may seem counterintuitive, but if you’re already standing side on, then it will be obvious what is coming next.

Once you lift your knee to the chamber position you can then pivot your foot and hips at the same time, you will now be ready to throw the question mark kick.

When you have pivoted you can whip your leg up and kick sideways in a downwards diagonal line. Ideally, you will hit the opponent in the jaw coming downwards, but this is obviously very difficult. Even if you are to hit them sideways on. A completely undefended kick to the head of the opponent is a very good offensive move to have.

Tips To Improve Your Question Mark Kick

• Your knee should be pointing upwards. Most of the time you are going to be aiming to kick the opponent in the head, so your knee will need to face upwards. This setup is similar (but more deceptive) to a round kick.

• You need to be able to perform a high kick on its own already. If you’re not flexible or strong enough to perform a high kick by itself, then you are not ready to learn how to question mark kick. The two kicks are very similar, but the question mark kick may seem “easier” to throw if you’re not doing it properly.

• Never put the kick back into the chamber. When throwing other kicks you are often taught to re-chamber. However, an ideal question mark kick should be going slightly downwards on the head and through the face/body of the opponent. It is bad practice to recoil the kick.

• Remember to pivot. The question mark kick requires a lot of hip flexibility and rotation if you want it to be powerful. If you’re standing straight with no pivot, this is going to be a lot harder to do and will require even more flexibility.

• Your upper body should rotate at the same time as your hip is rotating your kick. If they are out of sync then you will feel your kick is very weak and disjointed.

• You should lower your leg back to the ground when finishing the kick. If you’re dropping it with full force due to being unbalanced this will be bad for your knee joints and is a bad habit to get into.

Real Life Examples Of A Question Mark Kick (Knockouts)

The question mark kick is legal in pretty much all striking martial arts such as full contact taekwondo, karate, kickboxing, muay thai, and MMA. Most of the knockouts you will see are from MMA for two reasons. Firstly the competitions are more largely televised and viewed, so clips are shared around and become viral more easily.

Secondly, in MMA you must defend everything at once. In taekwondo matches, you are not worried about the opponent performing a double leg takedown and then punching you on the floor. In MMA you must worry about this as well as many other things at the same time.